Day 14

Wednesday June 30

After the excitement and new pleasures of yesterday, today was a bit of a clunker. We woke up early (maybe that’s part of it, I’m beginning to realize the importance of extra sleep and some downtime on a trip like this) and got on the Going to the Sun Road. The day didn’t start well as one of the first things I saw on the road was the party lights of a cop car in my rear view mirror. It turns out, I was (allegedly) going 48 mph in a 30 mph zone. Who woulda thunk it? They enforce speed limits in national parks? I thought they were so underfunded that there weren’t any park rangers even left. I got off with a warning after the girls did their cute kid look and I did my befuddled dad routine.

The GTTS Road is definitely the centerpiece of Glacier. It’s about 50 miles long and was built in the early 1930s. It cuts through the mountains heading east west through the park crossing the continental divide. It’s one of those engineering marvels full of switch backs and drop offs. A lot of people find they can’t comfortably drive on these types of roads but it doesn’t bother me. I think the more dangerous park roads are those on level ground where you can let your guard down. There are some twisty roads without guard rails where if you miss the curve a bit (especially when driving 48 in a 30 mph zone), you will head right off the road and into some glacial lake. Since there is hardly anybody to witness it, they’d probably find the wreck in about twenty years.

The GTTS Road was beautiful. Of course it was. Some of the turnouts were just stunning. I think we’re getting a bit weary of the beauty though. It’s a very strange and discouraging phenomenon, getting a bit blasé about our physical landscape. We took a hike through a forest that is almost a rain forest. We had planned to do the Hidden Falls hike at Logan Pass (on the continental divide) but it was completely covered in snow! While it wasn’t technically closed, I don’t see how we could have done it in our sneakers/hiking shoes. We finished the GTTS Road and took a replacement hike out to Baring Falls. This hike was really nice. The best part was when it skimmed a turquoise colored lake with mountains rising right behind it, before hitting the falls. We played 20 questions as we went and had energy bars at the falls. The falls were…nice. Ho hum, another gorgeous and dramatic waterfall. Can we get something man made here? A skyscraper or a cool looking parking lot maybe?

Instead of returning on the GTTS Road, we left the park and took the local roads skirting the park all the way back to the park’s west entrance. It was quite a long drive and, while the scenery was majestic, was probably a mistake.

We had burgers for dinner at the campsite. Halfway through, I had another revelation. Why am I making burgers and brats and the like when all three of us prefer pasta? I think I’ve been figuring that we have to have camping food while camping. Why though?

Daddy needed his local tonic, so we drove back to the Lake McDonald Lodge for a Going to the Sun India Pale Ale, a root beer, and a huckleberry lemon aide. We sat there writing postcards and playing “Egyptian Rat Slap,” a game I swear the kids simply made up on the spot. The rules seemed to change to suit them. I think it was a case of them teaming up to whack around a rather tired and beleaguered dad.

We had planned to hang out and see the stars on the way back to camp since we really haven’t seen them much on the entire trip. (The stars come out so late that we’re usually pretty worn out by then.) When, by 10:40 they still weren’t out and there was still some fading light in the western sky, we decided to call it a night.